Zhou Qingfeng attacked Broken Bridge City before, and although he returned with a great victory, his horses suffered a lot of losses. When he returned, he pondered the need to replace the delicate horses that were difficult to serve with mechanized power.

Not much to ask for, simple, durable, and cheap.

Arcie tossed around for half a year and came up with a prototype machine, a spider-shaped construct.

The Atlas road conditions are poor, and the spider's eight-legged ability to move in the wilderness is definitely better than that of horses. However, it doesn't run fast enough, and its defense is basically streaking.

In order to reduce the cost and facilitate mass production, Arcie dismantled the core circle of the permanent enchantment of the construct. To provide power, she also invented the Magic Steam Engine, a strange thing to look at.

A steam engine is a machine that boils water, but the rider can't endlessly add coal to the boiler. It just so happened that Zhou Qingfeng's altar of faith could provide a large number of magic gems, so it was good to choose one that could be heated as fuel.

The small boiler and cylinder crankshaft of the steam engine were brought from the real world by Zhou Qingfeng, and after assembly, they became a thing that suddenly emitted white smoke.

It was installed on the spider structure to act as a power source, and successfully reduced the cost of the whole machine to 5,000 gold coins. In comparison, the price of a heavy war horse is two hundred gold coins, and the price of a service horse is fifty gold coins.

"It's still too expensive. If the price is 1,000 gold coins per unit, it would be fine. ”

Zhou Qingfeng rode a costumed spider at night to test in the rich and strong collar, and his buttocks were all upside down. "It's ugly, it's not reliable. I ran one lap and broke it twice. ”

The Magical Steam Engine is too large, causing the center of gravity of the Constructed Spider to be high, making it easy to overturn when running. In addition, the machine is not yet mature, it breaks down from time to time, and needs to be fine-tuned.

Alcy snorted twice at her master's complaints, but she didn't hear them. Together, she and Sophia figure out how to improve and create something that has never been seen before, which is a great joy for Maggee.

Zhou Qingfeng got down from the constructed spider, rubbed his buttocks, and specially instructed Arcie to improve the suspension system.

'Swift Shadow' looked at the side and said, "Great master, a noble and wise monarch like you, why bother with such a thing? As long as I am here, I guarantee that you will gallop on the battlefield and be brave and invincible. ”

Zhou Qingfeng glanced at it, "Today's sycophant shooting is too blunt, and it's not comfortable at all." ”

"Really?" 'Shadow' fell into self-doubt, "This is what I just watched my master test the majestic bearing of the spider, and I had a temporary feeling, and I created it on a temporary basis. ”

"You can shut up." Zhou Qingfeng knew how embarrassed he was when he rode the broken spider just now, as if he was having a seizure of madness.

"Yes, master." Shadow lowered his head.

Leaving the maid to improve the construction spider in the laboratory, Zhou Qingfeng went out and walked to another secret area of the Fuqiang Collar - the No. 4 craftsman area of Harmony Village at the beginning, and added a lot of equipment.

Coldwind City has been facing strong pressure to survive, and the previous battle with the Banshee Castle was not satisfactory. Zhou Qingfeng relied on a different war mode to drag the opponent into the 'quagmire', which eliminated the war.

In hindsight, we must reflect on our own capabilities in regular warfare – is it appropriate to continue to use cold weapons?

The Rock Battalion of the Coldwind City Infantry Regiment continued to follow the path of hoplites, but the other two battalions simply lost their spears and heavy armor after being expanded, because Zhou Qingfeng's manufacturing industry had already touched the edge of hot weapons - jumping over the arquebus and directly engaging in flintlock pistols.

The barrel and flintlock mechanism weigh only about one or two kilograms, and you can bring twenty or thirty sets from the real world every day. This just reinforces secrecy.

The butt is made of wood and can be machined with a simple machine. The craftsmen of the 'Fourth Zone' have been able to assemble all the parts firmly.

The key is gunpowder, and the chemistry of the other world is somewhat different from reality. The pyrotechnics used in hot weapons are completely ineffective in the Otherworld, which forces Zhou Qingfeng to find another suitable propellant formula.

That's where alchemists come in.

Wizard Jason, who previously made the 'Missile Staff', has a secret lab in Sector Four. He led a dozen apprentice wizards tasked with verifying thousands of alchemical recipes copied from the 'Gate of True Knowledge'.

This laboratory looks ordinary, with more than a dozen ordinary cubicles. The most important equipment is several high-precision balances, as well as equipment for purification and passivation of a wide range of materials.

Apprentices must be protected from their lives when experimenting - many alchemical recipes are not insignificant, or emit highly toxic fumes after exploding.

Alchemists make money easily, but they also die easily.

In the past six months, Jason has only verified more than a hundred formulas. The search for the perfect propellant may be in the next second, perhaps years.

Seeing the lord appear at the door of the laboratory, Jason, who was covered in black, spread his hands and said, "The situation is no different from last week, most of the formulas that meet the requirements are toxic after exploding. A small number are either weak or very expensive. ”

The 'Gate of True Knowledge' records the achievements of the elves for more than 20,000 years, and there are too many alchemical potions that can simply explode. But most of them are used to explode at the enemy's side, and very few are used to explode before their own side.

"Can you use 'scarab powder'?"

Zhou Qingfeng walked into the laboratory. Jason recited the spell and opened, an activated safe. Inside the box was a small vial of pale golden powder.

This thing comes from a peculiar insect whose body dries and grinds into powder, and the slightest spark explodes. Although the gas choked after the explosion, it was non-toxic.

But this thing is very expensive, very expensive, and the cost of one round of ammunition is ten gold coins. Its sources are also very limited, and it is difficult to supply a large amount of demand, and it is difficult to meet even the daily training of troops.

"This thing can only be used in small quantities, and your infantry still needs to be armed with spears and heavy armor." "As for the other recipes, I'm still testing. Hopefully one day I can find a cheap and good one. ”

Zhou Qingfeng could only compromise on this, "Okay, it seems that my thermal weapons can only take the elite route." Since each bullet is so expensive, it would be too wasteful to use it to hit creeps. So ......"

"So what?" Jason felt bad.

"So we're going to have to equip it with a well-wrought, rifled barrel, a zoom sniper scope, and a demon-shattering Adamantite warhead designed to deal with valuable targets like wizards and high-ranking knights from two hundred meters away."

Ha...... Jason froze. His gaze was once again focused on the pale golden medicinal powder, and he felt extremely chilled by the scene described by Zhou Qingfeng.

The enemies of Coldwind City are going to be in trouble, and the wizards who are hiding far behind the defense line are not safe.

Zhou Qingfeng added after speaking: "Can that damn scarab beetle be artificially raised?" You can't rely on wild supplies. We need to change the way we think about solving problems. ”

Jason never thought about it, so he could only spread his hands and say, "I'm not an entomologist." ”